Certain "anti-terrorism" laws which the Liberal government has shown are totally worthless anyway, won't be undone.

And not to mention the total lack of accountability by government ministers to their constituents... pioneered by the Liberals, but no doubt furthered by Labor.

These things are (apparently) fundamental to a proper working democratic society and have been taken away under a Liberal government, but because they work so well for a government in terms of keeping the government running unabetted by 'people power', none of this will be undone by Labor.

Wednesday, 21 November 2007

Last night I went to see "Up & Out" by Christian Marclay at ACMI after winning free tickets from PBS.fm

Christian Marclay interests me because he's a turntablist in the artistic sense - using records and the experience of listening to and playing with vinyl to recontextualise sound, beyond what a normal DJ - even DJs like DJ Kentaro.

He also plays around with sound and vision in mashup style.

His film "Up & Out" is a mashup of the vision from Blow Up by Michelangelo Antonioni and the sound from Blow Out by Brian de Palma.

It was interesting, but I thought it could be done better... it was simply the sound of "Up" over the vision of "Out" and whilst there was some good congruency at times, it got old pretty quickly.

The start was the best, with the score of "Out" creating a sense of apprehension with the tape loop clicking over the strings of the opening track, whilst the vision shows a bunch of face painted freaks cavort over the screen. Gives the already odd on screen action a really spooky, malevolent edge.

I only watched it for about half and hour though - the film nerd in me enjoyed it, but the rest of me thought two things - a) I could do this and b) I could be doing something better.

I understand the thought behind it, especially as both films deal with voyeurism and things not being as they seem and politicising technology, but personally thought it was a bit weak.

I would have liked to see a little more thought put into it - splicing the sound of one into the other at opportune times, a proper mashup with a bit more thought to it.

The best mashups, musically at any rate, are the ones that not only mash incongruent pieces of music but make them enjoyable as stand alone pieces. The Grey Album works because not only is it mashing two incongruent artists like the Beatles with Jay-Z, but each individual song can be played and enjoyed on it's own. You don't need to know anything about Jay-Z's '99 Problems' or the Beatles 'Helter Skelter' to enjoy 99 Problems on the Grey Album.

"Up & Out" needs knowledge of both original films, and maybe even knowledge of both Antonioni and de Palma, to work. In this sense I feel it suffers. To make it work as a film it needed dialog from Blow Up to come in at opportune times.

Monday, 19 November 2007

Why am I not surprised this opinion is held by the editors of the Adelaide Advertiser?

It's exactly this kind of attitude that drives so many people out of the State, and will help keep Adelaide the backwater it is.

It's just so conservative. In everything.

I was chatting to Cut Le Roc on Saturday night and he said he was there the night before and it was "disturbingly quiet in Adelaide". And he's right.

Adelaide is quiet. There's never any people about. In Melbourne and Sydney and even Brisbane there's always people about. There's a vitality that's felt in the city.

Adelaide only experiences this occasionally, at times of the Festival/Fringe and Womad. Not even on New Years Eve is that sense of excitement present anymore.

And it's more than merely a "lack of population" thing.

The future is so exciting and opportunities abound, but when you're living in Adelaide it's like there's a fog and you can't see anything.

When Ratbag closed down I was at loss as what to do. Totally and utterly. I was rejected from both Team Bondi and Pandemic, and if Krome hadn't started I would still probably be on the dole.

I've been in Melbourne two weeks and have seen opportunities in case this job somehow goes sour - opportunities that would work for me in Adelaide but stuff I just didn't see or consider because of Adelaide is so conservative that it suppresses that kind of thinking.

I admit it was also me and my thinking that held me back, but it's more than just that... I've only been living out of the state two weeks, and even though I love the people back there, I honestly can't see myself returning for a while...

Thursday, 15 November 2007

On the one hand he claims that the bombing of Hiroshima was necessary to save further bloodshed, but then he condemns Penti Linkola a Finnish green thinker for believing the world needs less people in order to save the planet.

I'm really confused by this, because I see these as the exact same kind of thinking.

I'm not sure if my comment is too long, but Bolt has said he's writing a larger article tomorrow, so I might re-post it in those comments. I really hope I get a response, because I'm legitimately worried that I'm the stupid one for not seeing a difference, and hoping he can clear it up for me...

Here's what I wrote:

Andrew, didn't you just today say that the bombing of Hiroshima was required to stop a greater catastrophe?

I'm pretty sure you did:

"In making such judgements, the utilitarian is driven above all by the moral imperative to preserve as many people as possible from harm. Given that, the utilitarian would also seek in war to avoid any needless deaths, especially of civilians."

Unlike many of your blog posts, these are completely your own words. [LINK]

So you agree that those Japanese killed in the dropping of the bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima needed to be sacrificed to save the planet from the greater threat of Nazi and Japanese Imperialism.

Is that correct?

So how can you condemn these people - you were saying the EXACT SAME THING in that people need to be sacrificed for the greater good??

I really can't see what the difference is here.

One the one hand you had the annihilation of everything we hold dear by the Nazis and Japanese, and on the other hand we have the annihilation of everything we hold dear by environmental breakdown.

If you look at history, you'll see that the Romans tried to do the exact same thing as the Nazis, and they succeeded, and then the Saxons, and then the Christians, and so on and so on, but traditions thousands of years old that we hold dear still exist.

The world took a different course, but many traditions people held dear and fought for were preserved despite them losing to another culture.

So, can you please explain what the difference between Linkola's position and your position is, because I can't see one.

Tuesday, 13 November 2007

For a long time I've wanted to get some of my political views out. For a long time the way we frame political discussion has simply not looked right to me, and the political process has become corrupted.

I think we need to move away from traditional notions and adopt new ones so we can move on and more importantly, move better.

These notions are not always fully formulated and often not fully thought through. They are unreferenced and unresearched.

Here is my first post on this:

Personally I think the whole left/right political scale is a load of bullshit and people who use it are just too thick to understand the real workings of modern capitalist society.

If you look at all modern democracies you will see the same thing - even in places 'the left' hold up as leftist paradises like Sweden. The policies are centralist. And you want to know why?

Capitalism, as a system, needed to conquer the conflict between rich and poor or risk falling in on itself and it did by making the middle classes. It needed a group that was easy to keep happy, and we're pretty fucking happy with our lot, all over the fucking world.

And by happy, I mean are you prepared to risk your life or the life of your family to fight against what you think are the injustices of the Political Party you aren't going to vote for if they get into power?

Of course not! If they get in you'll just whinge for another 4 years. Same with me, same with every single person you know. Because either way, you'll be pretty happy with your lot in life.

Sure, it could be better, it can always be better, but it can also be a lot worse. And as long as it doesn't get too much better or too much worse, you'll remain happy.

And by worse I don't mean having to pay 25% extra on your mortgage, I mean forced into slave camps because your hair kind of worse.

Because unless you're prepared to die for your convictions, which for centuries working class and upper class people were prepared to do, nothing will change.

Change can only come from violent revolution, and violent revolution will never happen on the scale it needs to happen because not only is the logistical possibilities of that occurring again so small because of the huge population, we've been fooled into thinking violence is a bad thing.

Monday, 12 November 2007

So I've been in Melbourne a week, and listening to PBS.fm the local community radio.

It's fucking awesome. The music they play in the morning is great, a cross of hiphop, funk, jazz, rock and soul. It actually wakes me up and has made me interested in

Although I think the presenters talk a little too much, at least they're not the obnoxious pricks that you find on commercial radio. And they're not Jay and the Doctor on Triple J - two unfunny wankers who should have stuck to making music.

Today they had a competition open to subscribers to win tickets to Up & Out, a cinegraphic mash up of Blow Up and Blow Out, two films I studied at Flinders Uni for Screen Studies.

I had to become a subscriber to win, but I thought fuck it, I pay $20 for last.fm so why not pay to support Australian music and radio?

Wednesday, 7 November 2007

I thought it was just Andrew Bolt, but it appears to be the all over the Herald Sun.

Sunday's Herald Sun had a story about knifes. One sentence read "Critics say Melbourne's "stab city" reputation has been festering for years, but is only now being taken seriously." but then makes absolutely no mention of who these critics are or where they have been saying it 'for years', at all.

A google search for "stab city" brings up many hits, but bugger all related to Melbourne. You would think that these critics would at least have a blog hit or two!

I realise it's imaginary critics making imaginary comments that is trying to pass for news, but unfortunately the suburban Melbournite dumb fucks believe this tripe day in, day out.

I'm yet to pick up the Age, but I don't hold Fairfax in the highest regard either.

But even the ABC suffers from it! I used to watch ABC news because in Adelaide the presenter was really good, one of the reporters really hot, and the stories were the least sensationalised out of the lot.

Yes, they're biased to some degree, but I don't mind bias. The Herald Sun is biased too. So is the Age. I can see that bias and accept it as part of modern media.

However, the ABC's story about the Beadeez toys that made children sick was so over the top I ended up turning the news off. "Toys banned in all states except Victoria"... "no comment from the manufacturer"... Maybe because it was a PUBLIC HOLIDAY and even I was hard to reach?!

The ABC host is also terrible at reading the news. Where did they dig that fool up from?

It's sad, sad times when the Weekly World News looks like something that rivals the New York Times.

Tuesday, 6 November 2007

Well, I had my first night out in Melbourne at the Espy to see DJ Kentaro.

One of the greatest nights of music I’ve been to in a long time. Mu-Gen was mixing up some nice breaks and hiphop, and then One Sixth jumped on stage and got the proceedings underway with a great acapella. Some nice local hiphop followed, but I wandered in to the other room to see Belleruche.

Glad I did, because Belleruche was awesome. A nice bluesy number kicked off their set, and I couldn’t but help think of Portishead. Very similar style and the lead singer had one of those lovely, soulful voices like whats-her-name from Portishead, or even Amy Winehouse. Not too bad looking either! I really enjoyed listening to something different as well, and will have to track down their album.

Kentaro was after them, and after a little delay he stepped up and delivered one of the best scratch routines I’ve seen in a long time. He’s a freaking machine! Metronomic timing and hands faster than superman! He played around with hiphop and drum and bass, and although the Adelaide crowd would probably scoff at the dnb as “cheesy” – there was a bit of Pendulum and the like – the Melbourne crowd lapped it up.

After Kentaro I managed to catch a bit of Dexter’s Gorillastep. Crazy breakdancers jumping around as four drummers banged out glorious rhythms over Dexter’s records and scratching. It was pretty cool, albeit a little hippyish, but it was really great to see something different. Dexter mentioned he’s starting some underground hiphop club so I gotta check that out.

The Bamboos took a long time to set up, and although I love their acid-jazz sound, I was pretty over it by that stage. I caught a bit of Cash Money on the way out, and he was great. He played hiphop and a little other stuff, like Damien Marley’s Jamrock, MCed over the top of it, and was scratching over the top of it. He reminds me of Grand Master Flash, but with far less ego. Would have stayed longer but was tired as.

Softography

Producer on My Little Pony:Friendship is Magic on iOSProducer on Playful Minds Math on iOSAssistant Producer on Silent Ops on iOS

Krome Studios Melbourne:

QA on Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole on PS3, Xbox360 and WiiQA on Game Room on Xbox360Assistant Producer on unannounced and cancelled Wii titleAssistant Producer on Transformers: Rise of the Fallen on Wii/PS2Lead QA on SceneIt? Box Office Smash on Xbox360QA on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on WiiQA on Hellboy: Science of Evil on Xbox360 & PSPQA on The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels on Wii

Krome Studios Adelaide:

Senior QA on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on PSPQA on The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night on WiiQA on The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning on PS2

Ratbag / Midway Australia

Lead QA for Ratbag Games ToolsQA on Wheelman on PS2 (cancelled)Lead QA on Speedway Sprintcars (PAL) on PS2QA on Saturday Night Speedway on PS2 and PCQA on Dukes of Hazzard:Return of the General Lee on Xbox